Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 186, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1919 — TIRES IN USE [ARTICLE]

TIRES IN USE

(By N. B. Scott, of Scott Brothers.)

When you purchase a tire, no matter what the make, you. naturally want Io get as long mileage as possible, for therein, lies the owner’s profit and catlsfaction. The best way to make tires give more mileage, is to “know” what things or conditions are most apt to l cause damage and then to avoid these things as far as you reasonably can. In most cases, where one driver gets, “more” and another “less” mileage out of tires of the same make, the whole reason is due to the kind of “tire hab-. Its” each man has formed. So, it be-' comes highly profitable to form those! habits which save money—and the royal road to long mileage is simply to “form the habit” of always keeping) your eye on what is the daily condition of your tires —of stooping down and; testing them with a tire gauge in place] of walking around the car with head) up, for fear that left rear tire “might be down to 40.” How To “Keep Up Pressure.” Pressure has been preached to owners until most of them are sick of it —: but necessarily so, because “lack of-it”; is still toe one big source of quick tire destruction,- Every owner knows about what pressure his tires should carry—THE BIG THING IS TO KEEP UP A GOOD PRESSURE CONSTANTLY—WHICH YOU CAN ONLY DO BY WATCHING THE TIRES —USING THE TIRE GAUGE AND NOT LETTING THEM “GO” BUT PUMP! THEM UP A 8 OFTEN AS THEY} NEED IT. There’s no other way. Deflation not infrequently happens) by. “accidents” in which nobody is at| fault. As for example, where a punc-j ture is received driving over a road so] rough that the owner hasn’t the slight-: est suspicion he has a flat tire until he, has gone far enough to destroy half! the future life of the tire —even if he hasn’t developed an actual rim break. Again, a “soft" or “flat” tire often comes about from some inside condl-; tion of the tire damaging the tube — such as tubes pinched between the rim or cut by an improperly placed flap, or cut by cracks in the fabric —by little pebbles left inside the casing when making a tire change, by a patch coming off under heat —by the slow leak pf a valve stem or by some “part-way-through” puncture hole in the tube that was not at first discovered, but 1 which gradually developed Into a good sized leak. Remembering how any of these things will cause a tire to run “flat” or “soft” and how quick such a condition will “raise Caln” with the best of tires, th* one simple remedy is to form that important habit of taking a look at your tires frequently—and if there is a suspicion of a flat tire give it prompt attention—because the difference between only running it ten yards and running it a mile is easily worth “considerably more than $10.00” —to you. Then, here’s the next big thing—and one that unfortunately is very commonly overlooked —or not fully understood. If a rear tire has been run flat or if you have a suspicion that it has been damaged or weakened don't put It back on the rear if you can help it The rear tires of a car have to do by far the hardest work, and it is a well proven fact that a weakened or partly damaged tire will stand up several thousand miles on the front (where the strains are much less) when the same tire will go ‘o pieces and blow: out on the rear in less than 500 miles. If you catch the big point—the front, is the place to get long mileage out of old, weakened tires —while the place for your best and strongest tires is always on the rear. In the case of Fords, where the front and rear tires are different size, you can at least save yourself from having to buy new tires unnecessarily often —by putting that, new bought rear tire immediately as your extra for many months to come. If you carry the new tire as an extra, the first thing you know the old one 1 will blow out and then you ..have “got to buy another new one”—or do without the comfort of always having an egtra tire ready to use. How To Prevent Stone Bruises. The next big source of tire destruction is what is commonly called the “stone bruise”—-which simply means that the inside fabric is broken by some extra sharp blow against some sharp projecting rock, railroad track or any one of the "inch to 2-inch high” projections which are about as thick on the average road ,as files on a dog's back. Most of these “projections’* will be passed over without damage—but occasionally one strikes just right or is just a bit too high or Is struck with a speed force back of it just a bit too big—and, bingo! you have —not necessarily a blowout right then, but the a regular man-sized blowout a week, a month—or perhaps two months later. r When the blowout does come, it may “happen” when the tire is standing atm, or what is most likely of all, you will discover the inside break throngfa It's pinching the inner tube. In either case, there is about one chance in 100 that you will ever be able to connect up the original cause of the blowout with - the time . It happened. The most practical way to overcome axcesslve tire, loss through stone bruise blowouts, is to buy “Extra Ply’’ tires because of their extra strength resists thousands of blows without damage, which would cause a break In any of the so-called standard or “dne-ply-less" tires. The other big pi 'Tentative Is in the owner's own hands—and consists of

Sts forming the driving habit of keep-. Ing his eye on the road and of “dodging” rocks, sharp ruts, and of slowing up at railroad tracks—in short, of handling his car as cleverly as a' cow horse dodges prairie dog holes. It! takes a little practice to become a really “good” driver, but it adds interest to the driving and it pays good dividends in saving both tires and the car. Other Tire Damages and How To Avoid Them. There are a hundred other ways in which tires can be damaged, either by pure accident —lack of knowledge or direct misuse.. The direct misuse is perhaps the least of the three, yet. is by no means uncommon. It consists most often of] either trying to use the wrong sized tire on a rim—of putting tires on rims without first properly cleaning the rim —of using tires on rims igjiich have been nicked or damaged so the tire cannot seat properly—of trying to use a smaller size inner tube than the tire calls for—of continuing to drive a car on which you know the wheel is out of line, or wobbly (by the fact that the tire is wearing off on one side, or is being ground off abnormally fast, square across the top in place of slightly rounding) and of tires damaged by unusual road conditions —frozen ruts, sharp rooks, excessive speed, etc * With all of these things you yet; come right down to the fact that the one big way to save tires is to EXAMINE YOUR TIRES FREQUENTLY. You exp<At to put oil in the engine! every little while —and look at the gas-i oline tank or gauge frequently enough to see that you don’t run out. Just do the same thing with your tires and you, will find your mileage—nearly double.) And right here it should be understood that the purpose of this whole article is simply to help owners generally in’ every way I can, for there is nothing, which pleases the. tire dealer so much] as see his customers obtain the long-i est possible mileage on every tire they, buy, and there is.nothing that bothers' him more or hurts his trade more than to have the reverse of this happen, whatever the cause. There is one very common source of short mileage, which I have failed to mention —and that is, the neglect to promptly take care of a puncture hole in the casing. Many owners think that if they simply change the tube, that is all that is necessary—but it should be remembered that every puncture makes a hole clear down through the fabric. That this fabric Is bone dry and is intended to be protected against water by the unbroken

rubber tread, and that unless a puncture hole is promptly sealed from the outside by a little inexpensive job of vulcanizing, or by the next best thing, by using some kind of fill gum, water is bound to follow in this puncture hole while the surrounding fabric will' absorb it like a sponge and the result' Invariably will be a big soft spot ini the tire, resulting in a blowout. The Inside of the puncture hole also needs , to be sealed —preferably inexpensively vulcanized —at the same time the rubber Is vulcanized In the tread, but whether vulcanized or filled, the hole' should also be reinforced inside by a, small fabric patch—thus strengthening it where damaged.

* The same conditions apply to cuts In the tread, which if small, will do] no narm unless they are deep enough to reach the fabric—in which case,' look out —for, unless such cuts are; properly filled or vulcanized, water,) dirt and sand will work in and will 1 soon produce a loosened tread and; dually, damaged fabric and a blowout.] Another source of tire economy sim-< liar to that Of getting most out of weak rear tires by changing them to the front —is to-change tires around —put-; ting what has been the outside to the inside. When you run across condi-i tlons such as. crooked by-roads and! frozen ruts which quickly chew off the j side wall —but in .which you will find] much tae greater damage is always! done to the “outside” of the tire, so that you can obtain a lot of extra miles, by simply turning them around. Whenever there is any mark or, lengthwise cut on a tire .following cleararound the tread, you will almost in-; variably find a corresponding bright! spot under the mud guard or where) the tire is turned in too far and) strikes the frame. This is particularly apt to occur in case of a broken) spring, but it is a.so coming about of late quite frequently, where owners put on larger sized tires than they have been using before, with the re-: suit of bringing into play projections which the smaller tires fail to reach. Such projections are generally easy to remove and on most cars there is a 1 set bolt which can be changed to prevent the tire turning finder far enough to go against the frame. When we consider the wonderful things pneumatic tires do for us all — bow they get us over even rough roads with wonderful comfort and speed (roads that would be entirely impractical for either solid rubber or steel) we really ought to take off our hats io the pneumatic tire as one of the greatest of our present century blessings. » Truth is, despite all the things that jan happen to a tire, it is so wonderfully tough and so perfectly adapted to it’s use that it only asks of us reasonable attention, to return royally

good service. ' A tire pays mighty big dividends lowever, for that one word “attention”—and as for the quality of the ire you buy, when the millenium jomes and you are able to buy a good torse at the cheap skate price—or a food hat, a good suit of clothes—or food “anything,” at the price of Junk, then, and not before, you will find that you save money by buying cheap. In the meantime, the best real bargain is that tire which is strictly high*

test quality, extra heavy and priced right. You don’t have to be an expert either, to tell it. for there is a certain weight and a certain beauty of fine rubber and a thickness of sidewall and tread in a strictly high-quality tire, which you yourself can readily see and feel. As the bld darkey down south used to say, “Dere’s many a piece of moss in ’er tree top, what looks ’xactly like a squirrel’s tail—but—dere’s never yet been no squirrel's tail what looked ’xactly like a piece of moss.’’--Come in and look at an AUBURN tire.